Two arrested for poisoning girls
Police say man tried to extract revenge after one of the Unnao girls rebuffed his advances, families lay to rest minors amid heavy security
Police on Friday arrested a 21-year-old man and his teenage associate for allegedly poisoning three Dalit girls and killing two of them in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, claiming that the duo tried to extract revenge from one of the girls after she rebuffed the man’s advances. The development came on a day the families laid to rest the two minor victims, aged 13 and 15, after resisting two attempts by the administration to bury the girls — a stand-off that brought back memories of the Hathras gang rape case last October where police and local administration forcibly cremated a Dalit victim. The three Dalit girls were found unconscious in a field near their home on Wednesday. Two of them died soon after, and the third, 16, is in a critical condition in a Kanpur hospital. .
Police on Friday arrested a 21-year-old man and his teenage associate for allegedly poisoning three Dalit girls and killing two of them in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, claiming that the duo tried to extract revenge from one of the girls after she rebuffed the man’s advances.
The development came on a day the families laid to rest the two minor victims, aged 13 and 15, after resisting two attempts by the administration to bury the girls — a stand-off that brought back memories of the Hathras gang rape case last October where police and local administration forcibly cremated a Dalit victim.
The three Dalit girls were found unconscious in a field near their home in Unnao district late on Wednesday by family members. Two of them died soon after, and the third, who is 16 years old, is in a critical condition in a Kanpur hospital.
Inspector general of police Laxmi Singh said Vinay Kumar, a resident of a village neighbouring that of the victims’, and a 15-year-old boy were arrested on charges of murder and concealing evidence. They belong to the same caste as the victims, said local officials.
“Vinay told the police he asked for her phone number, proposed to her but she always refused. He was angry with her and sought revenge for his
insult…The accused gave some pesticide with water to the three girls,” said Singh. She said Kumar confessed to the crime.
The victims’ families welcomed the arrests.
”We have been telling the police right from the start that our daughters were murdered. We stand vindicated. The police must ensure that the investigation carries enough evidences against them and they are hanged,” said the father of one of the victims.
Kishan Pal, Kumar’s father, said his son was being framed. “My son is not like this. He is being made a scapegoat under pressure,” he said.
The father of the 15-year-old boy said his son was too young to commit such a crime. “How can a young boy of his age do something like this? This is beyond his capability,” he said.
Police said Kumar was a farmer and owned a piece of land near the spot where girls were found on Wednesday night.
According to police, Kumar said the girls used to go to the fields for fodder and became friends during the coronavirus lockdown, after which he started pursuing one of the girls but was rejected.
“We used to play and eat together in the field…When I proposed her, she rejected. When I asked her this month to give me her phone number, she did not give due to which I was angry and decided to kill her,” Kumar was quoted as saying by UP Police.
On Wednesday, Kumar allegedly mixed pesticide in a water bottle and met the girls in the field with the intention of poisoning them. “When they asked for water, I gave them the water bottle in which pesticide was mixed and they drank it,” Singh quoted Kumar as saying.
It was not clear why Kumar tried to poison the other two girls and didn’t stop them when they were drinking from the same bottle. As the girls complained
of vertigo and fainted, Kumar and his associate panicked, dragged them to their field from his and ran away, police added. “I left their bodies in the field,” the IG quoting Vinay’s alleged confession said.
Police said they were told by other villagers that Kumar was present in his field at the time the girls were there.
He was among six people picked up for questioning on Thursday noon.
“Vinay broke down when his location was also found in the field at the time of the crime and a few eyewitnesses, who saw them running from one field to another field in a state of panic, came forward,” said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.
Family members said the girls were close friends and left together to bring green fodder from a field around 1.5km from their house on Wednesday. They brought a packet of chips from a local shop around 3.30pm. It was the last anyone saw them. Their bodies were discovered by the families around 9.30pm.
On Friday morning, bodies of the two minor girls were buried in their field in accordance with local customs, in the presence of scores of policemen and local officials. The bodies were kept in their respective houses, where they were shrouded and garlanded. According to local tradition, unmarried minor girls are not cremated.
On Thursday, local administration had tried twice to bury the girls. In the morning, hundreds of angry local villagers confronted officials supervising the digging of graves in the field with earth moving machines and said they won’t let the administration bury the victims. In the evening, family members threw themselves before the machine in protest and said they would not allow the burial in the night because it violated local customs.
But on Friday, the administration said the burials were conducted with the families’ consent. Unnao district magistrate Ravindra Kumar refuted reports of any pressure being exerted on the families and said the last rites were performed as per their wishes.
Officials also announced ₹5 lakh each for the families of the two deceased girls. The family of the third girl, who is in a Kanpur hospital, was given ₹2 lakh and the government said it will bear the cost of her medical treatment.
Specialists from Lucknow’s King George Medical University assisted the staff at the Kanpur hospital at the instruction of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, said officials. The hospital said the girl was responding to the treatment given by doctors and her condition was being monitored by specialists. “She could be taken off the ventilator,” the medical bulletin read.